Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

Sea horses get their exceptional flexibility from the structure of their bony plates, which form its armor. The plates slide past each other. Here the seahorse's skeleton, as well as the bony plates, are shown though a micro CT-scan of the animal.

Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

Sea horses get their exceptional flexibility from the structure of their bony plates, which form its armor. The plates slide past each other. Here the seahorse's skeleton, as well as the bony plates, are shown though a micro CT-scan of the animal.

Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

The tail of a seahorse can be compressed to about half its size before permanent damage occurs. The tail's exceptional flexibility is due to its structure, made up of bony, armored plates, which slide past each other.

Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

Researchers are hoping to use a similar structure to create a flexible robotic arm equipped with muscles made out of polymer, which could be used in medical devices, underwater exploration and unmanned bomb detection and detonation.

Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

Engineers at UCSD have turned to one of nature's most intriguing critters, the seahorse, to figure out how to make a robotic arm that can maneuver in many different ways while also protecting itself. This image shows how joints are connected in the armored plates in the seahorse's tail.

Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

It turns out that the seahorse's tail does just that, and the bony plates that slide back and forth, allowing the tail to get longer or shorter, also act as armor to protect against predators.

Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Seahorse Armor Inspire Robotic Designs

Engineers at UCSD have turned to one of nature's most intriguing critters, the seahorse, to figure out how to make a robotic arm that can maneuver in many different ways while also protecting itself.